This invention relates to masks in eye diagrams, and more particularly to determining a bit error rate for a mask in an eye diagram.
There are several ways to determine a bit error rate for an eye diagram. For example, given partial eye information it is possible to compute the bit error rate for a mask within the eye diagram. But calculating the partial eye information requires controlling both the sending and the reception of the signal. If the equipment calculating the eye diagram does not control both the sending and the reception of the signal, the partial eye information cannot be calculated. As a consequence, the equipment cannot calculate the bit error rate for a mask within the eye diagram using the partial eye information.
Embodiments of the invention address this and other problems with the prior art.